Why Coaching Matters in Junior Tournaments
National tournaments have a certain prestige to them - for most of us, if there's one event where we would like to have the tournament of our life, it is our country's official Championship!
If we take the upcoming Australian Junior Chess Championship (Jan 17-25) in Canberra, for example, nearly all of the main contenders for titles and many of the other participants enlist the services of a chess coach to go through their games and prepare them against their opponents each round. Particularly serious juniors will have coaching for several months before the tournament and continue working with their private coach during the event.
Indeed, if you are playing the tournament 'on your own', you'll be facing players who get feedback after their games so they are less likely to repeat their main mistakes, and have a nettlesome opening variation (or even entire repertoire) prepared by their trainer, which they will know a thing or two about.
For this reason, any player wanting to perform at their very best in such tournaments also need coaching through the event. Every single major title winner in last year's Australian Juniors had a coach there to support and prepare them.
I will be attending the Australian Junior Chess Championship for its entire duration as a private coach, and I am the most qualified person to coach you for this tournament.
I am the reigning Chess Champion of Australia (and top Australian scorer in the recent Australian Open), and have been coaching junior players for the past thirteen years. I am also internationally qualified as a FIDE Trainer.
In my post-game analysis, you will not just learn where your mistakes were - you will also learn how to remedy them with my simple, practical advice.
For your pre-game preparation, you will have a renowned chess theoretician (I write regular opening articles for ChessPublishing, New In Chess and ChessBase) selecting your openings for the opponent so you get the middlegames you love and the opponent loathes! With my local knowledge of the players, I can quickly inform you about your opponent's weaknesses, showing them to you in their games.
You won't have just given yourself your best chance of a great result, but also will learn about preparing for your future tournaments, improve your chess understanding and know what it takes to win tournaments.
Make the best move of your tournament. Check out my coaching page on Chess.com (http://www.chess.com/coach/max-illingworth) or website (http://www.illingworthchess.com/) and contact me before the tournament!
